Number plates are turned into journals. Billboard vinyls are used as bags, aprons, satchels, gift boxes, wine carriers, dog leads and much more. Truck inner tubes are given a new life as bags. Mr Kilmartin began his business 10 years ago. "I returned from years living in the US and Europe running bars and flogging software, in debt and determined not to become another shark in a suit,'' he says.

While scouting sights in the US for a franchisor, he met people in Pennsylvania who were turning number plates into "all kinds of things''. Back in Hobart, he started experimenting with number plate products. Mr Kilmartin, 38, used his parents' garage as his workshop. His dressmaker mum pitched in, sewing samples and bags. His retired dad also helped, allowing the pool room to become an office and manning a stall at Hobart's famous Salamanca Market. "Neither of my parents came from a small business, entrepreneurial background but over a period of time they saw it evolving and were more enthusiastic,'' he says.

The business, Urban Boomerang, soon started hitting its straps. "Markets evolved to trade fairs and retail sales," he says. He decided to shift it to Melbourne and also believed the name Urban Boomerang was to "Australian''. He wanted a name to reflect a global streetwear brand. It became haul, with a lower case h, with an emphasis on its role as a "pop culture recycler''. "We were supplying retail to streetwear stores,'' he says.

In 2006 the company took a short-term one-year lease on a property in Northcote to test the waters. Later, came a shift to Fitzroy, two doors along from the Piedimonte supermarket to a shopfront, warehouse and manufacturing outlet. But Mr Kilmartin says more exciting things are happening for haul. It is about to open a retail outlet in Melbourne CBD.

The emphasis is shifting from retail to more business-to-business dealings in the form of eco-corporate gifts. Haul is now dealing with corporates and rebirthing its old vinyl billboards into a variety of goods such as messenger bags, dog collars and even iPhone sleeves. "Initially, number plates were 80 per cent of our business, now it is 5 per cent,'' he says.

The company started doing document folders for SEEK, using their old billboards. It struck a chord with Generation Y because they wanted green initiatives rather than just "blind mission statements''. Later SEEK started giving away goodies made from billboards. He says haul started negotiating so that at the end of a billboard campaign media buyers would sign the old boards over to them to turn into new goods. Jetstar, AGL, BP, Origin Energy and Virgin Mobile were among a growing number of businesses getting into the use of billboards for corporate gifting.

Mr Kilmartin says the business was ahead of its time, being green before it became fashionable. For a company such as Virgin Mobile to give a product made from its recycled billboards to staff or clients there was a real wow factor. "The products are a way for companies to display corporate social responsibility and differentiate themselves,'' he said.

Haul was using old billboards to make bean bags for an office for Google in Sydney.

There had been a shift from customers accounting for 70 per cent of business to a 50-50 split between corporates and retail customers. Mr Kilmartin says haul is also involved in the marketing of the goods. "We employ five (staff) directly and a couple indirectly. My mother still makes the odd bag, my father still works a stall at Salamanca Market,'' he said. "At various points in time anyone with a Kilmartin in their name has worked in the business.''

Last week haul bagged another honour and was named the Business3000 business of the year.

Mr Kilmartin says the export side is growing slowly with online sales to New Zealand, Hong Kong, the US and Britain. A haul corporate website was also on the drawing board."